Re: BHARAT'S (INDIA'S) CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE WORLD

From: Dr. Jai Maharaj (usenet_at_mantra.com)
Date: 08/02/04 

Date: Mon, 02 Aug 2004 04:24:12 GMT

The Ancient World Had Only One Culture

By Ashok Singhal
Working President
Vishwa Hindu Parishad
THE ORGANISER
June 1, 1997

Hindus have a rich heritage. Not only the Hindu
philosophy Hindus have a long and distinguished tradition
in science from ancient times to the twentieth century.

It is indeed a happy augury that Hindu ethos has awakened
the hearts of Hindu youth of Europe. They are the
inheritors and carriers of ancient Hindu wisdom. The
home of the Vedas and the Upanishads is indeed the
fountainhead of world culture and civilisation.

Recently I came across a statement on a BBC serial about
the spread of Hinduism in Europe in ancient, pre-
Christian times. It was said that the ruins of a temple
found in the remote island nation of Iceland, or the
Egyptian pyramids, or the Tower of Babel all symbolise
the worship of Lord Shiva. It is now common knowledge
that the original inhabitants of the British isles, the
Celtics, were Vedic Aryans. The Celtic priests were Vedic
Brahmins known as Druids. The mythology of Scandinavian
countries closely resembles its Hindu counterpart in many
ways.

Hindu civilisation spread far and wide throughout Asia,
says Will Durant. It is noteworthy that the largest place
of religious worship in the world is an ancient Hindu
temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu in Cambodia at Angkor Wat
(Onkaar Vat).

Disillusioned by the 2000 years of their experience with
the lack of respect for life and nature on the part of
the Semitic religions and threatened by consumerism, many
in the West are today searching for their pre-Christian
roots. These roots were no other than the common culture
of mankind in the hoary past. It was the common heritage
of all mankind. Despite regional variations certain
characteristics were common to all which today, we
associate with Vedic culture. So we call this common
culture of mankind Vedic culture. Scholars, Western as
well as Hindu, have, therefore, unequivocally declared
that the ancient world had only one single culture which
they too name as Vedic culture.

Ignorance of the universal significance of holistic
approach of the Vedas is a tragedy. Our apathy in this
respect is causing loss of dignity to us even today. The
Vedas are the accumulated treasure of spiritual and
universal laws. Yogi Parmahansa Yogananda wrote:
"It is not a pumping-in from outside that gives wisdom;
it is the power and extent of your inner receptivity that
determines how much you can attain of true knowledge, and
how rapidly. Knowing and applying this truth, the
ancient rishis of India devoted themselves to practice of
yoga techniques for concentration and meditation that
enabled them to attain intuitive scientific understanding
of the universe-from the farthest reaches of theoretical
physics to the details of harmonious everyday living.
Their wisdom was recorded m the Vedas, which to this day
form the foundation of Indian spiritual and cultural
life." Ancient India played a pioneering role in shaping
human culture and civilisation throughout the world from
the Inca and Maya in South America to Shintoism in Japan.
The Buddhist monks, in fact, continued the tradition of
early sages of unfolding Sanatana Dharma throughout the
world.

The Science of Hindus

India was leading the world in scientific activity at
least till the seventh century AD. There was a downfall
of Indian science in the medieval ages owing to foreign
invasion, subjugation and exploitation. Science can
flourish only in the proper socio-economic background
under optimum motivational conditions and with suitable
ideological environment. The faculty of speculation and
the capacity to accurately observe, infer, experiment and
interpolate were very well developed among the Hindus.
The wise men among them laid the foundations not only of
spiritual-cultural sciences but of scientific thinking in
numerous other disciplines. The observation of heavenly
bodies and nature inspired some of the thinkers towards
religious fervour, the more pragmatic ones however
utilised their experiments and observations for weather
prediction, navigation, agriculture and other utilitarian
purpose. Excavated ancient Hindus ruins reveal
remarkable feats achieved in drainage and other civil
engineering works and also systems of writing. The
ancient Hindus laid the foundations of mathematical and
scientific knowledge. They conceived and developed the
sciences of logic and grammar and made great advances in
fields so divergent as anatomy and astronomy, philosophy
and metaphysics, medicine and mathematics. Some of the
basic conclusions reached by the ancient Hindu insights
have become the fundamentals of modem science.

Professor of historical linguistics, George Cardona of
Pennsylvania, in a recent interview (Times of India 212-
97) said: "Noam Chomsky is the giant of modem
linguistics. But Panini who lived no later than the 5th
century BC has even a greater stature. He was the first
to compose formal grammar with unbelievable theoretical
insight. His Ashtadhyayi deals with complex and
complicated issues about language, thought, relationship
of form and meaning and logic. He was the product of a
long history of thinking on every aspect of language. The
Upanishads, Aaranyakas.. and the Vedas speculate on
language, and all this Panini confided in crisp
statements on which long commentaries are written. He
was the culminating point and a brilliant scholar." he
Vedas: Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva (over 5000 BC)
represented the very best in speculative thinking apart
from containing numerous references on drugs, diseases
and stars. in recent decades the famous 16 formulae of
Vedic mathematics have been found from confided Vedic
mantras, which point to the fact that if we have the
capability to decipher, we can discover many other gems
in our ancient scriptures. Kanada and Kapila the Vedic
philosophers, referred to five 'immutable' elements which
were constituents of matter. They also developed the
concepts of molecule and atom. Kanad proposed the
undulatory theory for the propagation of sound and made
the seculation that light and sound waves are only
different manifestations of the same energy. Even in
that early age a statement was made in the Atharva
Samhita to the effect that though solar eclipse popularly
believed to be due to a monster called Rahu, the more
likely cause is the interposition Of the moon between the
sun and the earth. Expressions of scientific opinion
contrary to popular or religious beliefs were common in
the Vedic ages; the fact that there were scarcely any
religious beliefs were common in the Vedic ages; the fact
that there were scarcely any religious persecution bears
testimony to the spirit of tolerance in Hindu culture. In
Surva-siddhanta, the Indian meridian was fixed to be at
Ujjain, the centre of astronomical research. The most
fascinating topic in Surya-siddhanta is the sine-table,
which is the oldest in the world.

The discovery of the geometrical theorem stating that the
square on the diagonal of a rectangle equals the sum of
the squares on the two sides m area, is usually
attributed, without any justification, to the Greek
savant, Pithagorus. However, the following statement is
found in several places in Shatapatha Brahmana and Sulya-
sutra: "The transverse chord of a rectangle produces, by
the construction of a square on itself, what the length
and the breadth produce separately." The decimal system
of number, perfected later by Aryabhatta was in vogue
during the Vedic ages. Large numbers up to 108 are
referred to in many ancient Hindu scriptures. Aryabhatta
(b. 476 AD) made the discovery (at the age of 23 wrote
his famous book on astronomy, Arvabhattiyan) that the
earth rotates round its axis and also theorised that the
earth revolves round the sun. His other scientific
contributions include: discovery of trigonometric sine,
accurate evaluation of pi, perfection of decimal system
of numbers, evaluation of AP and GP series and square and
cube roots of numbers, accurate calculation of number of
days in a solar year (up to seventh decimal point which
is better than Piolemy's figure), discovery of the causes
of solar and lunar eclipses, prediction of duration and
angular extent of eclipses, etc. - a long list indeed.
Aryabhatta was the pioneer to introduce the concept of
algebra. He had been the first and the foremost
mathematical genius, produced by the human race and a
forerunner of Newton and other ruropean mathematicians
who were to be born more than thousand years later.
Bhaskara advanced the concept of algebra, He dealt on
algorithm, zero and its use, unknown quantities, surds,
the pulverizer, solution of quadratic equations and of
certain equations of the third and the fourth degree.
Arabic numerals are still called 'Hindusa' as they were
borrowed from Hindustan.

Some of the comments found in Charak Samhita and Susruta
Samhita reveal an amazing degress of objective and
scientific thinking: "to gain experience in surgery, one
has to properly dress and dissect a corpse and minutely
observe the anatomical details." Charaka and Susruta were
not only experts in medicinal chemistry but also authors
of several treatises on organic and inorganic compounds.
Some biased western scholars have claimed that all
scientific thinking emerged from Greece and that what
science the Hindu had, they borrowed. Jean Filliozat, the
eminent French indologist has pinpricked the buddle of
this fantasy.

Ancient Hindus were highly knowledgeable about the
intricate functioning of various phenomena of nature.
They appear to have not only made attempts to understand
these processes but have studied the interaction between
man and nature in much detail. Evidently, they recognised
the dangers and risks to nature and the environment by
activities of human beings and have, therefore, evolved
some code of conduct to control these activities. Also to
practically implement these rules, they developed several
traditions and customs. We need to analyse these
traditions and customs in the modem perspective. A
systematic of this field can provide several new ideas
and practical methods to preserve this planet from
further degradation and Hindus can show a way to the rest
of the world. The holistic approach of Hindus appreciates
humanism and not homocentricism of semitism, capitalism
and communism.

This presentation is illustrative, not exhaustive.
Constraints of space do not allow us to discuss further.
Many scholars are doing research into several such
things, not for an chauvinistic purpose, but to learn
from ancient insight for the benefit of mankind.
Research on ancient as well as modem ideas, development
and reconstruction can go on. Our youth could do these.

Let us learn from past experience

Let us, the Hindus of today know our past in its true
perspective to build a great future. How many of us
really know about the great exploits of Samudragupta or
of Shailendera whose military might was far superior to
that of Alexander or Napoleon. Just 500 years ago,
Hinduism was the faith of entire South-East Asia. The
evidence is still there in far-flung places like Bali,
Cambodia and Sri Lanka. We all belong to a religion which
has taught the world both tolerance and universal
acceptance.

It is gratifying that Hindus the world over are now
realising their great heritage. Let the Hindu Youth of
Europe take a lead in worlwide revival of pride in our
heritage. The world has lived with the trauma of semitic
religions for too long a time. The time has come for
humanity to imbibe the universal wisdom of Hinduism. A
grea challenge and equally great opportunity are
beckoning us. Let us rise to the occasion and help the
world usher in a new era of peace and tranquillity.

Courtesy of the Hindu Vivek Kendra

Jai Maharaj
http://www.mantra.com/jai
Om Shanti

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